Search - Various Artists :: One Point Oh

Nine years, and still listening to it

J Lee Harshbarger | Ypsilanti, MI United States | 10/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I was in a record store back in 1996, they were playing Sarah Masen's then-new album, her self-titled re:think release, and immediately I loved it. So I bought that, and this sampler CD (which opens with her album's opening cut) was available for about $3 or something, so I got it too. Like Sarah Masen's untitled album, I get this out every October and listen to it. Sarah Masen's music is very "October" to me. The rest of the album isn't necessarily that kind of music, but I find I still like to listen to this album every October, even after all these years.



re:think was (is?) Charlie Peacock's label, and his goal was to gather artists with "compelling sounds and ideas" that make music which is "thought-provoking, entertaining, strongly encouraging, and imaginative." In other words, this music is not commercial, and I don't think his label did too well, although if I recall correctly, Switchfoot's first album was originally released on re:think.



I never saw any albums from any of the artists on this album other than Sarah Masen and Charlie Peacock, which is a shame, since this is really good music. Mostly laidback, it consists of pop sounds, but again, not commercial sounding pop.



A few tracks really break the mold. "Again And One Mo' Time" is poetic spoken jazz. "deeperkindajoy" is an interesting, lively instrumental version of the Bach tune, "Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring."



For a variety of laidback pop-based sounds yet not commercial, for an album with a variety of artists and styles yet is still cohesive, this one is a winner."